Every once in a while a book comes along that says something so important that it tilts the political landscape and entirely reshapes the discussion concerning the future of our nation. Not since Thomas E. Woods’ Rollback chronicled how liberal, redistributionist policies in the housing industry led to the 2008 economic crisis has there been a book on failed government policies as important as Craig R. Smith’s The Great Withdrawal. Withdrawal is required reading for every American who understands that our nation is heading in the wrong direction and wants to do something about it while there is still time.
As a microcosm of America’s ills the author directs our attention to the current plight of Detroit, and the liberal policies that began 100 years ago and put government growth and power on steroids at the expense of the commonweal that was once the prerogative of individual citizens and private organizations. Once a proud, thriving metropolis, not to mention an icon of America’s worldwide dominance in industry and the home of the automobile, Detroit is now in ruins, and literally bankrupt. One irrefutable truth regarding Detroit’s descent into the abyss is its dominance and control by one party and one ideology; Democrats and their pro-labor, nanny state liberal progressivism.
It’s a story we think we know, but until Smith came along we were barely scratching the surface. Operating solely under the ideology of liberal progressives, Detroit cemented its reputation as an ungovernable nightmare whose greatest export became more than one million residents fleeing the city limits. It now stands as America’s strongest public symbol of corruption, crime, incompetence, failure, greed and despair, where policies did the most damage to those it had promised to help.
Meanwhile, President Obama and the Democrats admit not only have they learned nothing from the colossal failures and bankruptcies of the inner-cities they have managed the past century, but they continue to push these same policies on a national level, with unsustainable debt, anti-business laws that choke the free-market, an astonishing growth in welfare and other assorted government handouts, and government command and control of nearly every aspect of our lives, as we’ve seen in crystal clarity with Obamacare. But unlike the residents of Detroit, when these policies are implemented across the nation, there will be nowhere for us and future generations to flee.
The Great Withdrawal has earned a prominent spot in the small library nestled within the 60 Plus main office. It deserves a spot on the bookshelf in every American home, where its powerful lessons should be a rallying cry within our own communities, and within every polling booth.
